


Pariah

by silicon_pyro



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Female Protagonist, Gen, Gray Jedi (Star Wars), Original Character(s), Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-05 19:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21213689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silicon_pyro/pseuds/silicon_pyro
Summary: The Jedi apprentice Jayle Urz finds herself alone in the galaxy, masterless and rejected by the Council.  Will her path be one of justice or revenge?  Will it lead to the dark side, the Jedi, or to something else entirely?





	1. Alone

T’alsk Rin took a deep breath of the heavy, damp air. It was a welcome respite from the artificial atmosphere of the starship he called home. The city of Rewport was the shipping hub of a particularly humid region of the planet Lydis. With a heavy fog in the air, the conditions suited the Quarren’s biology rather well. What didn’t suit him was the dive bar full of criminals and lowlifes where T’alsk found himself sitting and waiting for his contact. It was not the usual setting for the Jedi’s affairs, but this was a special situation.

Truth be told, T’alsk doubted very much the voracity of his contact’s claims, that here on an Inner Rim world there was a Sith cult beginning to influence local politics. Even during the height of the Sith empire Lydis was barely more than a pit stop, a source of sublight fuel and little more. Now aside from being a local trade hub and fuel depot the rest of the world was practically uninhabited. A Sith cult on a planet without any Sith history or even a temple was unheard of.

But here he was, waiting dubiously for someone who was very likely a paranoid busybody at best, sent out of fear of another uprising.

“You’re a cheating bastard.”

The shout was audible from the back room where the patrons participated in various games from sabbacc to chess, always with credits on the table. The bar, Fynn’s, was one of dozens within a few minute’s walk. This place had a particular economy that lent itself to small establishments in fierce competition with each other. This one didn’t seem very popular except among those who wanted to gamble or drink alone.

“You’re drunk, pay attention to your own hand and maybe you’ll break even.”

T’alsk sipped his drink.

\------------------------------------

Jayle Urz extended her hand toward the coin, focusing her thoughts on it. She could feel it, the shape, the texture of its surface. Slowly she lifted. The coin rose from the ground slowly, steadily . . until it started to tilt. Jayle tried to straighten it, but it tilted more, until she realized it was she who was tilting and she landed hard on her side.

How Master T’alsk made a handstand look so effortless was beyond her. He could juggle coins in the air while standing on one finger. She could barely lift a coin off of the ground.

She stood and drew the coin to her hand, something that barely required thought. So why was it so hard upside down? Had she reached her limits as a Jedi Apprentice?

A deep whistle from the comms panel demanded her attention. An incoming alert.

“What is it, TH?"

The droid's cylindrical head spun towards her. It sat in the small cockpit as it usually did. T’alsk had no desire to fly his task ship and TH-9C had no desire to leave it. The droid had no desire to do anything, in fact. Jayle had never met a droid with less personality.

“Electrical storm incoming,” the droid said in its grinding metallic voice. Flight window closes in seventeen minutes, thirty-eight seconds.”

"Oh, we aren't staying to weather the storm."

She flicked on her comlink.

"Master, the storm is coming this way. We need to get going."

The response was only static.

"Master T'alsk?"

Static.

"Well, TH, looks like I'm going for a walk. Keep an eye on things here."

The droid didn’t respond, but an audible grunting sound indicated it had heard and understood her.

_Why do I try?_

\------------------------------------

"I said, 'show me what's up your sleeves!'"

The argument wasn’t going to settle itself. It was escalating, in fact.

T'alsk sighed heavily. He put this drink down, then headed toward the back room. It was mostly empty save for a single table with five gamblers sitting around it. One, a Trandoshan, had drawn a blaster and was pointing it toward the human across from him.

The man with the blaster aimed at his chest looked unamused.

"Point that somewhere else." His tone was serious, aggressive, but not fearful.

"I'll point it where I damn well please," hissed the Trandoshan.

"Gentlemen, please." T'alsk moved to the table, his hands outstretched. "There is no need for violence."

"Who the hell are you?" asked the Trandoshan.

While he was distracted the human drew his own blaster.

"Please, there is no need to escalate matters."

\------------------------------------

It was already raining, as if the humidity wasn't bad enough. Now Jayle was practically swimming. Robes weren’t exactly the ideal fashion choice for this climate. For a Weequay it was absolutely miserable.

“Adversity reveals our true character.”

Jayle could hear Master T’alsk saying the words he’d repeated so many times. She didn’t feel like she complained more than average, but she sure heard those damn words a lot.

I’m persevering, Master. I’m enduring the rain so we can leave this Force forsaken rock.

She could see the light of the bar’s sign as she rounded a corner. It cast a strange crimson glow that overshadowed the other signs on the street, made it stand out.

Waiting for a speeder to pass, Jayle stepped from the sidewalk into a puddle and cursed, then froze for an instant as the unmistakeable sound of a blaster firing reached her ear.

In the rain it was hard to tell exactly where it came from . . 

_That came from the bar._

Jayle broke into a sprint faster than most bipedal creatures could move. She dodged a few slow moving pedestrians and ducked into the bar with one hand on her lightsaber. That was the moment it happened. The moment the breath was sucked out from her lungs and she felt like she was going to faint.

Master T’alsk’s presence was gone.

Everything that came next was a haze. The bar, surprised faces, running . . T’alsk’s body, smoldering on the ground. Gasping onlookers. An empty gambling table. The explosion of pain in the back of her head.

\------------------------------------

Jayle woke up to the worst headache she’d ever experienced. Every movement, every heartbeat was knives in her skull.

_Did someone hit me?_

She touched the back of her head and her finger came back bloody.

It wasn’t raining anymore. It was colder, night. Looking around she realized she was sitting against a duraplast crate in an alley.

“TH,” she called into her comlink.

Just saying it made her skull ache, but she’d never been so happy to hear the low warble of the droid’s response.

“TH-9C,” the droid replied.

“He’s dead. Master T’alsk is dead.” She tried to stand, but immediately lost balance and fell into a pile of refuse.

“Understood. Is there anything else?”

“Master T’alsk is dead, you damned machine! Someone murdered him!”

“I will inform the Jedi Council so they may update their records. Please stand by.”

“TH, are you hearing me!?”

. . .

“TH!?”

The link was dead.


	2. Defeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jayle Urz pursues her master's killer, hiring the bounty hunter Airin Hall to help pursue him to the desert planet Tattooine.

Xesska froze in his tracks. He spun, drawing his blaster. The alley was empty. He couldn’t shake that feeling though. Someone was watching.

The night was dark, heavily overcast. It was still damp from the storm a few days ago and the unrelenting mist of the ocean. The ground was slick and the constant drip of water from rooftops and gutters filled his ears.

Something crashed behind him. Xesska started to run, dodging around a refuse bin. He leapt over a bag, but somehow it caught his foot. Suddenly he was falling hard on the duracrete. His blaster clattered on the ground.

He rose, clutching his arm. The blaster was gone. Not down the drain, it couldn’t have gone that far. Under some trash?

“Xesska.”

The voice came from everywhere, nowhere. From in his own mind.

“If you keep running, this will only hurt more.”

No, there was someone out there. A shadow. A monster.

“What do you want!?” he hissed. “I’ve done nothing!”

His statement was met with soft, mocking laughter.

“Tell me the truth and this will be easy.”

He struggled to stand, facing the darkness.

“What do you want to know?” He felt the fear creep into his voice.

“Who killed the Jedi? Not you, surely. The human?”

A monster would have been better. This was a Jedi.

“No! It wasn’t me! I don’t even know who it was, someone in armor. I don’t know him!”

There was no response. Xesska allowed himself the hope that they had left just before an invisible force threw him into the nearby bin like a child’s toy.

“Not good enough! A name!”

There they were, a silhouette against the dim light of the street. A robed humanoid.

“I don’t KNOW them! They wore heavy armor, red and brown armor. Not Mandalorian. New and expensive. They just walked up while he was talking and fired. We both had put our blasters away by then.”

“Not good enough. Give me something I can use or you won’t be able to walk out of this alley.”

“His knife! There was a bone knife on his hip.”

He clutched his wound, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. Just a bruise maybe. Strange.

“Hello?” The silhouette was gone. “Look, that’s all I know, I swear it.”

There was no answer. The alley was quiet again but for the sound of dripping water.

\------------------------------------

The knife was a new detail and a unique one, something noticeable and easily spotted in a crowd. Jayle knew they were a formidable foe. To even take a mission to kill a Jedi was exceptional, but to succeed meant they must be extremely skilled and well equipped.

_ How did they sneak up on you, Master? _

First things first. The killer was a professional and that mean Jayle would need help, resources. The Council wouldn’t move without evidence, wouldn’t even take her call The authorities here had been bought off, clearly. That left private interests, bounty hunters.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

“Yes, I’m looking to hire a bounty hunter.”

The Square was the city’s primary trade hub. It was one square mile of every species you could imagine crammed together to barter for goods and services. Some were legitimate, some were definitely not.

On the East side of the Square was Maerthall, one of the oldest buildings in the city. It was the home of the local bounty hunter guild.

“No offense, you don’t look like you could afford anything inside this place.”

The Gamorrean chuckled to himself, snorting.

“Well how will I know without negotiating terms?” Jayle waved her hand. “You can let me in, I’m trustworthy.”

“I’m just supposed to take you on your word?”

_ Shit. _

“What do I need to do to get in?” she asked.

“Look like you belong. If you really need to hire a bounty hunter, just use the HoloNet.” He waved her away dismissively. “Maybe you’ll find someone charitable.”

Jayle contained her disappointment. She needed to find a holoterm.

“Very well. Have a good day.”

She turned and headed back toward the street. Her foot barely touched the sidewalk when someone stepped out into her path.

“Did I hear you say you were looking for a bounty hunter?”

He was human with dark hair and an unshaved face. Ruggedly handsome probably, Jayle wasn’t really into humans. He looked athletic though, like he could handle himself.

“I am,” she said skeptically.

“Then you’re in luck. Not only am I a bounty hunter, I don’t charge what the guild members would. Who are you looking for?”

“Someone murdered my friend and nobody seems to care. I want to find his killer.”

“Ma’am, that’s my specialty. Let’s walk and talk.”

\------------------------------------

His ship was small, but designed to do exactly one thing, pursue bounties. While many bounty hunters used repurposed scout and light attack ships, this one was an Incom HH-1 Predator. The first ship from the company designed specifically with bounty hunters in mind. Usually only members of a guild could afford something like this, but there were ways to make good money outside of a guild.

Unlike T’alsk, who preferred to let a droid do the flying, the bounty hunter who called himself Airin Hall flew his own ship. A one man operation. From his cockpit he could access a holoterm where he began his research, slicing into surveillance feeds that could track where the killer came from and where he went after murdering Master T’alsk. Jayle sat in the copilot’s chair, behind his right shoulder. It looked fresh from the factory in contrast to the well worn pilot’s chair.

“I found him,” declared Airin. He pointed to a looping three second clip of an armored figure ducking into an alley. “But I don’t see him leaving. He might have disguised himself.”

“How can I help? I know my way around a holoterm.”

“Sorry, I don’t let people use my network. Nothing personal. Most don’t even get on board, but since you don’t have a place to stay here, you might as well come with me if we go off world.”

“Well, let me know if I can be useful.”

She sat back, trying to relax but completely unable to do so. She didn’t trust Airin, she’d be foolish to, but she needed his resources. It was plain to see the killer on the holoscreen, but he was operating six different screens with at least three languages she couldn’t read.

“Okay, got him again. I ran a gait analysis, that’s the way he walks. Very high confidence this is the same guy.”

He pointed to where a humanoid was moving into a transport terminal.

“That’s a public transport terminal, which means there will be a flight plan, a destination. We’re a day behind, but we might close the lead. We’ve got a faster ship than any bulk transport.”

“No time to lose then. I’m ready to leave when you are.”

“Excellent. I’ll have a destination by the time we leave the atmosphere. Strap in.”

He started working through the ship’s startup procedure and in a few minutes they were rising above the skyline and angling up toward space. As the greenish-blue sky turned black a message arrived.

“There it is, they’re headed for Tattooine. We can beat them there easily.”

Jayle couldn’t suppress a smile. Tattooine was as dry as it got. It was practically home.

“Then let’s go.”

\------------------------------------

When you spend enough time in interstellar travel, you develop your own “hyperspace routine”. Of course this depended on the nature of your company and quarters, but on just about any journey Jayle spent the majority of her time meditating. A jedi could reduce not only their use of air, but food and water as well through meditation. It wasn’t done entirely out of utility though, as any Jedi made daily meditation part of their routine. It was an opportunity to commune with the Force, to reach beyond yourself.

Jayle hadn’t meditated for more than a few minutes since T’alsk’s death. Doing so without feeling his presence nearby hurt exactly as much as she expected. For almost a decade he was her mentor, the steady hand through her storm. He had taught her to bear the weight and calm the chaos. It would be a betrayal to forget his teaching and fall back into the mess she had been when they first met. Only in the last few months had she left home to become his apprentice, even if without the approval of the Jedi Council.

_ Are you out there, Master? Has your spirit found peace? _

There was no reply. If whatever remained of him was one with the Force, Jayle wasn’t capable of reaching it. There was just too much noise, too much rage. 

She opened her eyes and quickly scanned the ship, a habit she’d started early in her training. Airin was in the cargo hold and his heart rate was rapid. Perhaps something that demanded her attention.

Behind the cockpit were three steep steps down into the mess and bunks area, closed beds built into the bulkhead. Then the lavatory. Finally the largest area in the ship, the cargo and confinement hold. The door opened and Jayle found Airin squared off with a familiar model of training droid, its padded limbs designed to protect a combatant from injury while measuring the impact energy of their strikes, and their precision.

“You practice Teras Kasi?” she asked.

“Religiously,” he replied, not diverting his focus. “It’s my meditation. I sleep best when I’m exhausted.”

He held up his hands and the droid froze, recognizing the gesture to pause combat.

“Would you like to join me?”

Jayle suppressed a grin, though not well.

“I would enjoy that very much.”

She removed her robes, placing them on a crate. Her arms now bare, Airin could see the definition in her muscles. Flexing as she took a ready stance with hands in knife form elicited a raised eyebrow from the bounty hunter, then a wry smile.

Airin took a stance with closed fists, then nodded to indicate he was ready, but immediately regretted it. He had never seen anyone move so quickly.

Her first attack approached as a jab before her arm snaked around his to deflect his defenses while a kick struck his other arm. The same leg that kicked away his arm bent into a knee to his chest, which he barely deflected by turning his body to evade the shocking power behind the blow.

She withdrew just as quickly, falling into a loose defensive stance, then waving for him to advance. He steadied himself, coiled, then attacked. His first blow met nothing but air and his second was diverted at such an angle that he nearly tripped over himself. His kick nearly found purchase in her ribs, but met her elbow instead in an explosion of pain. It wasn’t until he resorted to powerless lightning strikes that he finally got a solid hit, but by then he was exhausted and retreated to a defensive stance again.

“You’re no novice,” he managed between breaths.

“I am not. I’m ranked as an Adept, striving for Master though it may take several years. You?”

He shook his head, still gasping for breath.

“No, just practice with the droid.”

“Would you like some advice?”

He nodded.

“If your sparring partner isn’t beating you, you aren’t learning anything. Beating up a training dummy only serves to stroke your ego. Defeat is where you learn the most poignant lessons.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Perhaps you could teach me  _ without _ beating me to a pulp though.”

She smiled a crooked half smile.

“I would be glad to.”

\------------------------------------

When the dusty-tan colored planet came into view Jayle imagined she could already feel the warmth of her twin suns on her skin. She had practically grown up on Tattooine and the climate suited her far better than most.

“You should get ready to move as soon as we land,” Airin said as he angled their approach for atmospheric entry. “You can wear a helmet if you like, so you aren’t recognized. I just like to stack the deck in my favor.”

“Yeah, a helmet is smart.”

“Check the armor rack on the left, just inside the hold. Use any of that stuff you like.”

Jayle left the copilot’s chair and excitedly bounded toward the hold. Having a lead on their quarry, time to prepare and set a trap, it felt good.

There was only one full suit of spare armor, the only one with a helmet. The breastplate fit, but she favored open sleeves. The helmet was a perfect fit and opened in a clamshell with a hinge on top. As the back closed, locking on the sides under her ears, she felt it seal against her skin. There was no obvious way to detach the locks though, probably to prevent tampering from the outside.

“Hey, how do you remove this helmet?” she asked as she sat back down in the cockpit. She heard her voice transmitted through exterior speakers with an artificial tone to it.

“Oh, good, it fits. It has a remote.”

Suddenly there was a rush of panic, fear. Like the Force itself was screaming at her. He held up a small device the size of a comlink and pressed a button. Jayle felt her ears pop as the pressure inside the helmet changed, then she smelled something sweet.

“How’s that? How do you feel.”

_ What just happened? _

“I feel different.”

“Clap your hands three times.”

Jayle felt her arms move. Watched her hands clap in front of her. She felt like a passenger in her body.

“Excellent, now stay in that seat until I tell you to get up. Strap yourself in.”

She immediately strapped herself into the crash restraints.

The next few hours were a mix of indifference and internal screaming, begging her own body to react to her will. She saw everything, heard everything, and remembered everything, but her body complied with everything she was told to do without hesitation.

Preparing his supplies, things to carry to market. Loading them all onto his speeder bike.

It was when he opened his prisoner hold that she felt she might break out of the trance, when she saw Master T’alsk’s body lying on the deck. Airin pulled off the Jedi Master’s belt and wrist comlink and tossed them into a box along with his lightsaber.

_ Master T’alsk is here. He’s on the floor. Master T’alsk is dead. AIRIN killed Master T’alsk! _

She stared at him, desired with all of her self to choke him. He coughed, looking at her with fear in his eyes, then pressed a button and the rage disappeared. She blinked a few heavy blinks, then they finished on the ship and left, heading into Mos Eisley.

He made one stop, a large house near the edge of town. They made negotiations and the Hutt who purchased her seemed pleased to have a lightsaber as a trophy. Then she was taken away, led down a hall, down stairs, into a row of cells.

  
  



End file.
